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Hockey

Rangers plan to take it one at a time against Capitals

New York Rangers right winger Kevin Hayes reacts after scoring the game winning goal in overtime against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of the first round of the 2015 NHL playoffs at the CONSOL Energy Center on April 22, 2015. (Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports)

At their practice facility hidden in an office park about 45 kilometres — or a good 90-minutes drive during the day-long rush-hour traffic — from Madison Square Garden, there is no definitive sign of the pressure on the New York Rangers.

Veteran winger Martin St. Louis is surly, but when isn’t he? Beside him sits goalie Henrik Lundqvist, the darling of the local media and St. Louis’ alter-ego, answering waves of questions with his usual bright smile and that ever- present twinkle in his eyes.

And around the rest of the room, other players look as if they actually enjoyed the up-tempo, hour-long practice and the interviews that followed during what is now their fifth day between games.

Meanwhile, as he enters a side room for his media addressing a little later, coach Alain Vigneault spots a reporter he knew from his days with the Hull Olympiques, cracks a smile and mouths the words: “You’re a long way from home,” then engages in a serious nine-minute question-and-answer session with the assembled horde. At the end of it, when someone tries again to get him to reveal if defenceman Kevin Klein will return Thursday from a broken arm that has kept him out since March 11, Vigneault relents.

“Unless something changes between now and (Thursday) morning, he will play,” he said, before turning to the rest of the group and breaking into a wide grin and playing dumb. “But I don’t discuss lineup decisions. You guys just got me.”

No, in the quaint village of Tarrytown, N.Y., the day before they take on the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal, the Rangers are calm and cool.

But the heat does exist. They have to know what everyone else has known for months: That the road to the Stanley Cup runs right through MSG.

The Rangers, who lost to the Los Angeles Kings in a championship set that took just five games to complete last spring, are heavy favourites to return for another shot at the mug. And after dispensing of the Penguins in Round 1, they now meet up with what appears to be the best Capitals team team in years — and what could be the biggest road block for them on the way to the final.

“I think your only mindset can be one game at a time,” said Vigneault. “Obviously, you set long- term goals and high expectations, depending on where your program is. Our program is at a stage where we believe we can challenge for the Cup. But that being said, there’s a lot of other things that need to happen before that and the only way to handle those things is one game at a time.

“We’re playing against an opponent that believes they can beat us. We believe we can beat them. First series for both teams was great hockey. This is going to be, again, great hockey.”

While the Rangers defeated the Penguins in five, each one of their victories was by a 2-1 score. And now, they are without winger Mats Zuccarello, an important part of their attack, for an indefinite period of time.

Filling in on the first line with Derick Brassard and Rick Nash will be St. Louis, a past playoff stud who had only one assist while playing third-unit minutes in the Pittsburgh series.

Against a tight-checking Washington team that held the Islanders to a mere 11 shots in Game 7 of their first-round matchup, St. Louis will be a key.

“We were 30 (teams) and 16 and now we’re eight,” said Vigneault. “If we want to go from eight to four and take care of Washington, obviously all our guys have to be better. And Marty is one of those guys, considering the fact Zuc is not going to be available and he’s one of our offensive players. He’s got experience being in these pressure moments, big games, and we’re gong to need him to help lead the way.”

Meanwhile, the Rangers are paying little heed to the success they’ve had this season as a team.

“I think we played really well in the first series, we got better as the series went on,” said centre Derek Stepan. “But to be honest with you, that doesn’t really mean anything at this point.”

Nor does the fact they took three of four from the Caps during the season.

“Everyone goes through peaks and lows throughout the season and right now everyone is playing at their peak,” said Stepan. “What happened during the year doesn’t matter.”

The Caps are expected to try and slow down the Rangers’ speed by playing them physically.

“I think that, since last year, that’s the memo against us, but we’ve been playing really well against those teams,” said Brassard. “I think we have a lot of character in this room and we never shy away from that.

“It’s going to be a hard series, like every series we’ve been playing. It’s always good games against them. We’ve been playing them the last two years in the playoffs. Obviously, there’s a rivalry there. It’s going to be good hockey.”

“It’s a new series,” said Chris Kreider. “I saw one of the coaches in one of the other series said he doesn’t believe in momentum in the playoffs, game to game.

“Once one game ends, one day is over and you move on to the next one.”